Overlooked Details: War of the Queens
by Melkor44
Summary: Saya, when going to free Diva, finds something else in addition to the key to the cell...how does the Book of Joel change her outlook on the situation she has found herself in, if at all, and will she rise above her Chiropteran instincts to become the heroine we all know and love? (This story is being continued, with permission, by dragon's swordswoman 2013.)
1. Overlooked Details

**No, it's not _Reign In Blood_, but it's writing; after watching Blood+, I knew I was going to write something...I just didn't know what it would be. However, I've decided on this.**

**This is my answer to the age-old, "what could have been different about Saya freeing Diva," but with (in my own humble opinion) a very severe twist.**

**I'm also going to mess around some with the timeline, and tweak the powers of the Queens, but not very much.**

**Anyway, I think I'll just get on with it.**

* * *

She was cold...bitterly, frostily, angrily cold. The rags she wore couldn't keep any heat inside of them, and this cage was only damning her to a fate worse than death. Her eyes, an impossibly deep shade of blue, began to glow; fangs protruded from her mouth, her face twisting into a macabre depiction of beauty, and she growled.

"Saya..." Her voice was graceful, even in such a harsh tone, and beautiful to listen to. "...please come back as quickly as you can. I don't want to stay here!"

It hopefully wouldn't be long before the other girl-her "friend," whatever the word meant-would return with a key to unlock the door of the room and she could get out. Saya had even given her a name, and it was the first thing that someone had actually given to her. Since before she could even remember, she'd been inside this tower; it was cold, it was lonely, and it made her sad.

That was when Saya had come along, when she was at her lowest...and it had, truly, been painfully joyous to hear another person's voice instead of simply seeing someone come in and leave.

"Saya...come back."

* * *

"Haji, I need you to stay here."

The dark-haired man looked at her strangely, as though she'd asked him to destroy the moon. For the two of them to be separate from one another was sheer insanity; they ate their meals together, went everywhere together, had played together as children, fenced together, bathed together, shared a bed, and had been absolutely inseparable-though such a thing hadn't initially been welcomed by either of them-since they had met.

"You know why I can't do that, Saya. I trust you, and I know you trust me, but I will not feel that you are safe unless I go with you."

"Please..."

He did not relent. "Absolutely not. Whatever is in that tower is clearly very important to you, and that makes it important to me as well; I promise, though I shouldn't need to, that I will keep whatever secret you seem to be so eager to hide from me."

Saya pouted, but knew that she couldn't hold out for long before the need to help her friend overrode all else. "Fine," she said, looking and feeling like a kicked puppy, "you can come with me."

With that said, he followed her as she ran up the tower. Even as he went, he noticed the strange colors of the place-roses of all colors except for white, pink or red wrapped around the yellow stones, and a black one in particular caught his eye-as well as the song that someone within this place had begun to sing. He listened to it, taking it in, and knew from years of playing cello that it was a perfect counter-melody to the piece that Saya had crafted.

_'Could such a coincidence be possible?' _He asked himself, charging forward until he was just behind Saya.

Her hands were trembling as she put the key into the lock...

* * *

"Diva!"

The singing stopped as her name was mentioned, and Diva looked over to find a beautiful girl with a handsome man behind her.

"Saya?" She squeaked. "Who's that?"

He looked directly at her, trying to remain at peace with himself. Joel kept a girl, let alone one who looked almost exactly like Saya, locked away inside of a tower? Or perhaps Joel didn't know about it?

"My name is Haji."

He was furious. There was no way that the two weren't sisters, and nearly identical ones at that-their only difference was in the color of the eyes; Saya's were a dark and mottled red, while Diva's were a deep blue...and Diva, dressed in nothing but torn and near-blackened rags, with barely enough of the scraps to maintain modesty, truly made him feel pity.

"You may be my friend, and I yours, if you wish."

_'Well,'_ he supposed, _'there's no going back now.'_

He almost smiled at the happy look that took over her face, and he did smile when he realized that Saya had opened the bars to the cage that kept her further penned inside.

"You're free now, Diva. Let's go."

"Wasn't I...wasn't I going to sing at some man's birthday party?"

"You were, that's right." Saya confirmed. "Until I found _this_."

It was a medium-sized book, with _The Book of Joel_ printed on the cover; this was Joel's diary, and it detailed exactly what Saya-and Diva-were: twin sisters, of a race known as the Chiropteran, and Queens of said species. Their blood could turn humans into less powerful forms of Chiropteran, and could bring back the near-dead as Chevaliers who were between Queens and their subjects in terms of power; Chiropterans fed off of blood, be it human or otherwise, and were at their greatest power when they had recently taken in the blood of a Chevalier. Greatest of all the information contained within, however, was this: Queens did not need to sleep if they fed routinely

"Because of what we are, Joel lied to us and separated us. He betrayed me, he's hurt you, and someone needs to answer for it."

Haji's expression turned grim as he remembered what had happened at the cliffs, looking to his right hand.

"Feed on me, then. I am a Chevalier, and I will serve you until I die...you must be hungry, am I right?"

"Haji, what are you thinking?"

"You said that someone needs to answer for what Joel did; I'm simply bringing about the way to obtain such an answer."

Diva had already bitten into his neck before Saya could stop her, and released her hold on him a few moments later.

"It's your turn, Saya. You saved my life, and for that I am eternally indebted to you-take the power you need."

She wouldn't; her entire upbringing had raised her to believe that such a thing was base, immoral, and disgusting. Joel had-

Wait a second...why should she care about what Joel said? He'd separated her from her little sister, made that same sister suffer! Why would she listen to the teachings of someone who did something like that?

With more finesse than her younger twin, Saya drew blood from Haji; her eyes glowed, now a vibrant crimson of rage, and she simply leaped from the side of the tower all the way to the ground...Diva followed, beginning a game of chase that was really just a way to see who could reach Joel first-despite rarely using her legs to walk, she was actually outpacing her elder sister by several lengths.

Many minutes later, they arrived just outside of the main ballroom where the event was being held; Saya held a French sabre in her hands, while Diva didn't have any kind of weapon with her. A trail of bodies had already been made, and everyone not already inside of the ballroom-which only had one entrance-was already dead. Diva had been dressed up to match Saya, and their dresses were colored to match the other twin's eyes.

"And we enter...now!"

Haji arrived just as Saya struck down the door. "I'll guard the exit for you...do what you will."

She quietly whispered her thanks, charging off after her sister to begin the vengeance she would take.

Diva was simply ripping people apart, drinking their blood, and laughing; to her, this was what Saya had described as a "game." She loved the color that spilled out from them as they stopped moving, the color of Saya's eyes, and wanted to see even more of it. She felt herself grow warm on the inside, which made her feel even happier, and her eyes widened before she moved on...the only thing she didn't like was that they made so much noise before they were made to have silence.

Saya had foregone any notion of style, instead choosing to simply hack and slice away at people who were close enough to her; she was fast enough, and strong enough, to cut through most of them in one blow. The shock of their initial attack had essentially worn off, however, and people were starting to respond. Guns were fired, striking the twins...who promptly ignored them and simply continued killing the mass of people.

Haji simply sat at the entryway to the ballroom, killing anyone who attempted to escape, experimenting with the speed and power of his right hand.

Limbs were chopped and torn off, bodies were mutilated beyond all reason, and nothing could harm the pair so long as Haji's blood continued to circulate through them; eventually, amidst a room of corpses, a single man stood alone.

"Why...why would you do this, Saya? Was I not good enough as a father?"

"You lied to me." She said. "You _betrayed_ me. You took my family away from me! **YOU TOOK MY _SISTER_ FROM ME! _YOU USED US AS AN EXPERIMENT AND TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF__ US!"_**

She would not be appeased by anything less than his head...so she took it. Diva had her fill, of course, tilting his head back and draining him dry of blood, but Saya had to be symbolic and behead him with her sword.

"Haji, go load up the largest carriage we have with Joel's gold. Diva, come with me and I'll pack you some clothing to wear; Haji, I'll get your clothes and the cello as well. When everything is done, we're going to burn this mansion to the ground..."

The glow faded from the eyes of the twins as they moved, and Haji simply shook his head before moving to the treasury in the basement. It would surely take several trips to carry that much gold, and there wouldn't be nearly enough space to actually travel with all of it. He would do as Saya asked, however, because that was his self-appointed job and his duty as a Chevalier.

* * *

Saya and Diva moved to what had once been Saya's room, and then to the closet filled with everything from dresses and skirts to suit-coats and dress shirts.

"You and Haji shared this room?"

"Yes." Saya said as she continued to pack the clothing into her large suitcases. "Why does it matter?"

"It doesn't...I've just never shared a room with anyone, that's all. Do you like him?"

"Who, Haji?"

"Who else would I be talking about?"

Saya ignored her younger sister's last question. "I'm not sure. He's been my friend for almost as long as I've known him, and he's always been there for me, and we do everything together. I've just never really thought about it, I guess. He's never brought it up, and I've certainly never said anything, so I'm also uncertain of where he stands on this issue. I wouldn't say no to him if he chose to court me, but neither will I go out of my way to get him to make advances on me."

"I think that makes sense. It's clear that you two like each other, but it may only be as friends-I'm certainly not one to judge!"

The pair laughed, and continued to pack all through the night.

When they were finally ready, at long last, Haji had come up to them and told them that he was finished as well; he'd managed to make everything fit snugly, and there was room under the seats of the carriage for the things which they had packed. They made their way down, with Haji lighting fires as they went, and left the place as the light of dawn peeked upon the burning blaze that was the Zoo.

* * *

**I'm unsure of whether this will remain a one-shot, but for now just think of it as complete... I'm also not very fond of how the writing went with this, so I'll probably re-work it at some point. **


	2. Intro to the War of the Queens

**Since there was some positive feedback, I decided to add some more onto this; it's now a two-shot.**

**I'll say once again that I may continue this...Your support, should I get any, will fuel that drive.**

**I'd also like to input that I've recently become very disenchanted with my style, which seems very rigid and slow-reading to me whenever I look at it. If you have any critiques, please feel free to say so!**

**That's all I really have to say on the matter.**

* * *

**Present Day: Paris, France**

The room was filled with young adults, sitting in desks, and a woman who stood at the front; her black marker made oily lines across the whiteboard, and her question was asked... "Can someone tell me anything about the War of the Queens?"

This was a brighter class than usual, so surely one of them would have prior knowledge of the massive event; the woman looked to the back, where a hand was raised.

"Yes?"

"It was a war between two women, who referred to themselves as either the Red Queen or the Blue Queen, and the rest of the world. The Red Queen was named Saya, and she was the elder sister of the Blue Queen Diva."

"Very good. Anyone else?"

Another hand was raised, and the student was called upon. "The War of the Queens began in France, in a mansion called the Zoo, and encompassed all of Europe and Asia within ten years. The Queens, their elite soldiers, the Chevaliers, and front-line soldiers from the British Isles, fought against all people who refused to submit to them...the war lasted for thirty years; after conquering all of Eurasia, the two Queens and all of their Chevaliers vanished. Nobody knows what happened to them...officially, that is."

"Very good!"

The student nodded.

"Since you know so much already, there's not much to teach you, but I can't just sit around and do nothing...so we'll start from the beginning. The two Queens, Saya and Diva, were born and lived in the Zoo until its destruction at their hands in the late nineteenth century. Their existence was all a very large part of an experiment by a man named Joel Goldschmidt to see how people would react in different situations; Saya was raised as a pampered girl, practically a princess, while Diva was locked in a tower and given only the minimum amount of food and water required for life...it's also highly possible that she was physically or mentally abused.

"The War of the Queens began when Saya, after running through the Zoo, accidentally found the tower that held Diva. She ran back to Joel's office to get the key to her cell, and soon set Diva free. After this, they killed all of the mansion's residents and set the entire place on fire. Their vengeance having been achieved, they left the burning soon-to-be ruins and traveled around the continent."

* * *

**Bordeaux, France, 1883  
**

"Where are we going?" Diva asked her sister, wide-eyed and likely a little scared.

"Wherever we want; we can go to all the places I've heard about in stories-Paris, London, America, and even far off countries like China. But, for now, you need to sleep..."

"Alright, big sister, but only because you said so."

The carriage was moving smoothly, despite its quick pace, and Diva fell asleep as she was cradled in her elder sibling's arms...Saya wasn't long in following her. All the same, Haji continued on in his driving of the horses until he found a suitable place to stop for the night. Upon reaching a small clearing, on the side of the road, he stopped before making sure that the horses were fed and had water. Once all of this was done, he simply waited throughout the night for his two mistresses to awaken.

* * *

The morning greeted them lazily, and Diva almost thought that she was still dreaming when she woke to find herself in such soft and clean clothes as those which she now wore. She saw Saya beside her, and stared directly into her sister's blood-red eyes until neither could take it; as one, they laughed...it was, sadly, the happiest thing that Diva had ever experienced outside of meeting her sister and killing those men and women in the Zoo's ballroom.

The two then got out of the carriage, finding Haji as he was beginning to play the cello music that had been ingrained into his mind; everything seemed still to them, even the insects pulling themselves up blades of grass. The duo's eyes went to one another, and Diva began to sing...the song was beautiful, natural, and flawless. It fit Haji's theme in tempo, style, and even their volumes seemed to play off of one another. It made Saya a little jealous, in fact, to see that the two of them could do something so in sync with one another after perhaps a dozen words between them.

It made Saya smile, however, to know that her sister was able to connect with people that weren't her.

"That's enough, you're making me sad! I can't sing, and I can't play cello as well as Haji, and I'm jealous of both of you! It's just not fair!"

"Your swordsmanship far surpasses either of ours." Haji stated. "It stands to reason that you would therefore not be quite as talented in the fine arts. Nobody is perfect at everything, Saya."

The young woman still didn't like it, but neither did she have to; it was simply the way that the world worked. "Where do you want to go?"

"I don't know, Saya. I'll go wherever you want to go!"

"Wherever you choose, Saya. As you know, I will do whatever you wish."

"Okay...how about England? I've always heard that it's very pretty in the summer."

"Very well."

"Oh boy! We're going to...Ing-lund?"

"Yes, England!"

* * *

**London, England, 1883**

There were five of them, all told; the Red Queen and her Chevalier, as well as the Blue Queen with two. In the streets, several armies of Ireland, Scotland, and Whales roamed...this was their hour.

The first of Diya's newest Chevalier was a Celt, from Ireland; he had wild red hair, brilliant green eyes, and his muscle mass would have intimidated anyone who attempted to stand before him...they did not know his true name, and he insisted on being called Cuchulainn.

The second of Diva's servants was a Highlander, from Scotland, and he was another man who'd been born to be warrior; shaggy brown hair combined with piercing blue eyes, he was slightly shorter than Cuchulainn, and he constantly fawned over Diva...he was Baird Cairns.

From the top of Big Ben, they watched the city die without their help. Diva was getting bored, and her Chevaliers were certainly looking to spill the blood of the English...Saya and Haji simply watched on, waiting for the carnage to finish. Such a thing would change, however, when Diva leaped from her perch and hurtled towards the ground; she was tired of waiting. As the lights and the smoke passed her by, on their way up, she couldn't help but giggle...this is what she lived for!

"Oh, fine." Saya shook her head, sighing in annoyance. "Let's go, Haji. I can't have my little sister dying on me."

"Of course, Saya. If that is your wish..." He would carry it out. That is what he did, what he had done, and what he would continue to do for the rest of his unnaturally long life: obey Saya's will, directly or not.

The pair seemed to flash down, forming a rear guard for Diva; it was really just Haji, though, as Saya went back-to-back with her little sister. This was how they had operated throughout the places which they had "visited:" the humans would rush in, storming the city and breaking a path open. Saya was the leader of the Welsh and Scottish forces, while Diva commanded the Irishmen...after a successful two-pronged assault, they would withdraw and let their human followers do the majority of the fighting; when the enemy began to thin out, the Queens and their Chevaliers stepped in to clean up.

Diva's style had not changed, but she had become more comedic with it; rather than simply tearing people limb from limb, she would instead take only one arm before beating the former owner of the appendage to death. All the while, she would giddily cry out, "Stop hitting yourself!" She, unfortunately, was the only one to find any humor in this course of action.

It was, to her, incredibly funny. She could go through all the reasons why it was absolutely hilarious...but a joke loses its grandeur when it must be explained.

Saya simply continued on with her swordplay, cutting down the opposition and smiling sadly as the world around them burned to ash; this was not what she lived for. All she wanted was a place to lay her head, somewhere that she and her sister and their Chevaliers could live out their lives in peace...which wasn't too much to ask, was it?

But, before that could be achieved, they needed to finish what they had started; perhaps, after this, they could just live out their lives here?

"Wishful thinking." She admonished herself, watching stone buildings crumble around her; this was never going to be allowed to pass, and they would need to crush all opposition in order to make certain that they could live happily...it wasn't what she wanted, or what she'd envisioned herself doing, but she would do whatever she could in order to help her beloved little sister.

They were as the Visigoths who sacked Rome, and near-joyful music could be heard emanating from Haji's cello. He had disengaged, having always hated fighting, and instead chose to watch the spectacle unfold. It was nothing but a grand opera to him, and what would an opera be without music? He certainly didn't want to find out how such a thing could exist.

Slag fell around them, as well as burning wood, but the Chiropterans ignored it; their wounds were never permanent, and the humans were dying in droves because of the flames. It was only making their job easier, which meant that they would be finished more quickly. The sooner they were done, of course, the better and happier everyone would be...and, with that in mind, Haji began to throw his daggers at critical points in the burning buildings' structures.

* * *

**Present Day: Paris, France**

"The War of the Queens truly began in the cradle of what was then the British Empire. The sisters went to Ireland, Scotland, Whales to gather an army which would help them against their first target: England. In exchange for this, their lives and families would be spared. Their army is renowned, even to this day, for how few soldiers were lost in battle; of approximately five hundred-thousand men, only a thousand or so were lost in the entirety of the war's thirty years. They launched a tri-pronged attack against England, which ended with the Battle of London...a day and a half of fighting, without quarter, destroying almost every structure in the city. Can anyone tell me what two pieces of architecture survived?"

A student raised his hand, seeming a little uncertain. "Wasn't one of them Big Ben?"

"Yes, it was one of two; what was the other one?"

A girl spoke automatically, forgetting to raise her hand. "Buckingham Palace."

"Indeed...and can you tell me why they might have left the palace mostly intact, miss, despite the fact that it held much of their opposition?"

Cold blue eyes slid across their sockets, pointing towards red ones that responded in kind.

"They were queens, and what place would be better for royalty than a palace?"

The teacher gave a disgruntled look, eyes narrowing in irritation for the girl's clear sign of disrespect. The blue-eyed girl was the younger twin of the red-eyed one; they were French, but their parents had moved to America and raised their daughters there...the pair had returned to France for boarding school, to grow and mature in their homeland. Delilah was the younger, and Susan the elder. The two bore very striking resemblances, in fact, to the Blue and Red Queens; it was something that unnerved the staff, and some of the elder girls, to the point of worry.

The pair only ever did anything with one another, always huddling off and disregarding the rest of the world. They seemed as though they missed something, like there were supposed to be other people there, but no one would ever approach them about it. They danced with boys at balls, and were perfect with small talk and feminine things when they had to be, but certainly appeared to be hiding a dark edge of themselves...

Oh, if only they knew.


End file.
